Moscow

Moscow is the capital of the Russian Federation, a city-hero, the center of Moscow region. Moscow is the city of federal importance, the subject of the Russian Federation. It is the greatest city in the country and one of the most important political, industrial, scientific and cultural centers of the world.

It is situated in the European part of the Russian Federation, in the country between two rivers, the Oka and the Volga, on the river Moskva. The border of the city mainly passes on the Moscow ring highway.

The area of Moscow is about 1000 sq. km. The population is 8297,9 thousand people (1999); including the settlements subordinated to the city administration the population is 8538,2 thousand people (1999).

Moscow transport junction consists of 11 railways, three river ports, and 4 airports - Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, and Bykovo. The number of stations of the underground amounts to 161, and the length of its rail way is over 220 km.

The largest in the Russian Federation city agglomeration has developed around Moscow.

A low share of children and teenagers and a high share of people of able-bodied age is a feature of the age structure of the population of the capital. Representatives of more than 130 nationalities live in Moscow. The most numerous of them are the Russians (95 %), the Ukrainians, the Jews, the Tartars (the national structure varies very much as a result of illegal migration from the CIS countries, especially from Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and estimates can be only rough).

For the first time Moscow was mentioned in the annals in 1147. From the 13 century it was the center of a princedom, from the 14 century it was the center of the Great princedom of Moscow, from the 2-nd half of the15 century it was the capital of the united Russian state. After transferring the capital of Russia to St.-Petersburg (1712)Moscow kept importance of the second capital. From March 12th, 1918 Moscow was the capital of the RSFSR, in 1922-91 it was the capital of the USSR. Since 1991 Moscow has been the capital of the Russian Federation.